Red Bull can be best behind Mercedes - Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo is confident Red Bull can challenge to be the best of the rest at this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix, but after finishing the second practice session in eighth he admitted it would be tough.

Ricciardo and Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel both struggled to hook up a quick lap during Friday practice and finished over a second off the two Mercedes. He admitted Red Bull were off the pace on Friday, but is confident the team can find more time over the rest of the weekend.

"We're still that gap off," he said. "Each race we hope we are going to close, but today it's still there. I think we have a bit more time to find tomorrow than they do and I think we'll close the gap. It won't be over a second tomorrow, but I guess the best thing for us is to make sure we are in front of the others and try to be the next best.

"To be top three is going to be more challenging this weekend, but I think we can still get there. So let's aim for at least a top five and then anything better we will be happy with that."

Both Ricciardo and Vettel went wide at the final corner in first practice, with Ricciardo holding the slide while Vettel ended up in a 720 degree spin.

"I didn't realise he'd done worse! I think the astroturf was basically a bit damp," Ricciardo explained. "Normally you can sometimes get away with being full over it, but it was a bit slippery and sucked us onto the grass, which I think was a bit damp as well. It was a little bit bumpy and threw the car around, but it was just an error from both of us."